MacroSystem DVD-Arabesk 3 User Manual

User manual

DVD-Arabesk 3

for SM ART ED I T

Legal notices

To avoid making mistakes during operation, we recommend that you carefully follow the instructions provided
in this manual.
We have taken a great deal of care whilst programming and checking this software.
Nevertheless, since it is not possible to guarantee totally error-free software applications in all environments
and at any time, we unfortunately cannot rule out the possibility that some errors may have crept in.

MacroSystem Digital Video AG and its dealers therefore do not guarantee fault-free use of the product or
complete awlessness of the product.

We will remedy any errors in the program and supply the affected customers with the new software free of
charge, if possible.
Warranty claims for defects shall expire in 24 months in the case of newly manufactured items. This shall not
apply insofar as the law prescribes otherwise and in cases involving injury to life, limb or health, in the case of
intentional or grossly negligent violation of duty on the part of the supplier and in the case of malicious silence
with regard to a defect.
The customer shall report defects to the supplier immediately in writing. Claims for reimbursement of
expenses for error tracing shall be honoured only after prior consultation with MacroSystem Digital Video AG
management staff.
Any other claims asserted by the customer for any expense(s) required for the purpose of subsequent
performance, in particular transport, travelling, work and material costs shall be excluded. However, this shall
not apply to claims for reasons other than newly determined software defects.

Warranty claims shall not apply in the case of only insignicant deviation from the agreed quality, for only
insignicant impairment of the usefulness, in the case of natural wear or damage which may occur after
passage of the risk due to improper or careless handling, excessive use, unsuitable operating materials or
which have occurred due to other special external inuences not provided for in accordance with the terms of
the agreement. In the event that improper modications or repair work is performed by the customer or any
third party, then any warranty claims for defects shall also be null and void for these and other consequences.

We do not, however, accept any liability for loss of data/time or any consequential damages that may occur
as a result, particularly because we have no inuence over correct software installation and operation by the
customer. MacroSystem Digital Video AG and its dealers therefore cannot be held liable for any defects or
unintentional damage in connection with the installation or use of the DVD-Arabesk 3 software.

Claims by the customer to compensation in damages and/or reimbursement of expenses shall thus be
excluded, in particular because of violation of contractual obligations and due to unlawful acts. However, this
shall not apply insofar as peremptory liability is involved, e.g. in accordance with product liability law, in cases
of intention, gross negligence, because of injury to life, limb or health or because of violation of substantial
contract obligations. However, any claims to damages for violation of substantial contract obligations shall be
limited to conventional foreseeable damage insofar as intention or gross negligence is not involved or liability
due to injury to life, limb or health. A shift of the burden of proof to the disadvantage of the customer shall not
be connected with the above regulations.

Neither MacroSystem Digital Video AG nor its dealers are responsible for any damages resulting either directly
or indirectly through the use of the software or the operating instructions. This is particularly the cause for
prot loss and reimbursement of expense.
Any implied guarantee is totally out of the question, including guarantee of suitability of the software or
operating instructions for a particular purpose.

Please therefore ensure that you backup your video footage before using the device. We recommend that you
do not delete the video footage and that you create a backup on DV tape beforehand.

Since it is possible that changes have been made to the software after the manual was printed, the functions

shown and described in this manual might differ from the software.

Contents

Page

1. General............................................................................................................... 5

2. Installation and Starting the Program ............................................................. 5

3. The DVD-Arabesk 3 Menu ................................................................................ 6

3.1 Creation.................................................................................................. 6

3.2 Info / Play ............................................................................................... 14

3.3 Miscellaneous........................................................................................ 16

4. Practice Example for Layout of a DVD Menu.................................................. 18

4.1 Menu layout with DVD-Arabesk 3........................................................ 18

4.2 Menu layout with PIP-Studio ............................................................... 22

5. Practice Excercises for Specifying the Background Menu............................. 24

5.1 Animated DVD title text........................................................................ 25

5.2 Moving background with Liquid Images ............................................ 26

5.3 Moving background with Particle Magic ............................................ 26

5.4 Moving background with Akaba – New Concept............................... 27

5.5 Suggestions for layout ......................................................................... 29

5

1. General

Thank you for buying DVD-Arabesk 3!

We thank you for your trust and hope that this

product will meet your expectations.

This guide will show you how to easily create

your own DVD.

We are available for any questions or

suggestions you may have.

For this purpose please contact us at the

following addresses:

Address

MacroSystem Digital Video AG
Postfach 020240
58290 Wetter
Germany

MacroSystem US
5485 Conestoga Court
Boulder, Colorado
USA 80301

Phone

0 +49 (0)2335/960-0 (Germany)
303-440-5311 (North America)

call our technical support hotline:

(Germany)
Monday -Thursday from 10.00 to 17.00 hours
Friday 10.00 to 16.00 hours
+49 (0)2335/960-112

(North America)
Monday - Friday 9a.m. - 5p.m. (Mountain Stan­dard Time)
303-801-1010

Outside of these times you can email or fax us.
Messages received in this way are handled du­ring business hours.

E-Mail Support

[e-mail] (Germany)
[e-mail] (North America)
[e-mail] (N.A.)
[e-mail] (N .A.)

Fax Support

+49 (0)2335/960-110 (Germany)
303-801-1058 (North America)

Please have the serial number of your machine

or your customer number ready whenever you

contact us.

E-Mail

[e-mail] (Germany)
[e-mail] (North America)

Fax

0 +49 (0)2335/960-100 (Germany)
303-440-5322 (North America)

Up-to-date information on MacroSystem pro­ducts and our sales department can be found on
the Internet.

Please visit our Website:

http://www.macrosystem.de (Germany)
http://www.macrosystem.us (North America)

Phone Support

If you have special technical questions, you can

2. Installing and Starting the
Program

In order to install DVD-Arabesk 3 you need a

storage capacity of at least 256 MB RAM.

Before you can burn entire dual-layer DVDs

(DVD+R DL), however, you will need to carry

out a fresh installation of the SMART EDIT 3.5

system software at least as well as install a DVD

drive of version DVR-108 or higher. (For further

information on burning dual-layer DVDs, please

read Chapter 3.3, item (9).)

Leave your system turned on and select the

Install Product button in the System Settings.

After the corresponding window has appeared,

insert the installation SmartMedia card into the

drive so that the gold contacts are facing down

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7

and the folded corner is pointing forward to the

left (in the direction of the system).

If the DVD-Arabesk 3 software is supplied on

a CD/DVD and your system is equipped with a

DVD burner as well as an older version of DVD-

Arabesk, you should open the drive tray and

insert the CD/DVD into the DVD burner.

If you are installing from a CD/DVD, you might

hear clearly audible sounds coming from the

drive – this indicates that the system is reading

the CD/DVD. In a moment you will see the DVD-

Arabesk 3 software listed in the Install Product

window.

Select it in the list and click on activate. A

numeric keypad is displayed for entering the key

code you have obtained from your dealer.

After that, a message is displayed indicating that

installation is nished. You can then remove the

SmartMedia card or CD/DVD which will restart

the system.

If you want to install DVD-Arabesk 3 as a demo

version only (also possible for systems without

a DVD burner), select the program in the list and

click activate.

In order to use the DVD-Arabesk 3 program,

enter the Finish menu. You will see the program

DVD-Arabesk 3 displayed in the list in the lower

left area. Select it now if it has not already been

automatically selected.

After you have created the complete video with

transitions, titles and audiom, click on the Start

program button to the right in order to start

DVD-Arabesk 3.

In case a message is shown indicating that your

rmware is too old, you can obtain this software

update free of charge from your dealer.

You will then be able to fully use or demo DVD-

Arabesk 3.

3. The DVD-Arabesk 3 Menu

Now you see the DVD-Arabesk 3 menu, which is

divided into three different blocks.

If you are working with SMART EDIT version

2.5 or higher, click on the Cancel button in the

displayed number code window.

If you are working with SMART EDIT version

3.1 or higher, click on the Demo button in the

displayed number code window.

The word Demo now appears after the program

name. Click on Ok to conrm and then remove

the SmartMedia card or CD/DVD.

DVD-Arabesk 3 is now installed as a demo

version.

Note: In demo mode only 200 MB of the total

4.7 GB or 8,5 GB (see chapter 3.3, item (7)) DVD

capacity are available for inserting a lm. Demo

mode therefore allows you to work with only

very short projects!

The buttons will be described in the order in

which they are used for the simple creation of

a DVD. You will also nd references to buttons

that are fully explained later in the text.

3.1 Creation

This section explains the three functions

contained in the block Creation. This block lets

you layout and create a DVD.

3.1 Creation: Add Film

(1) Clicking on the button Add Film causes a

7

window with several functions to be displayed:

• You can now specify the desired project you

would like to add. Clicking on the button Select

project causes project selection (similar to

Project settings) to be displayed, in which you

can select the desired lm or project.

You can see that the active project is the same

one you were last working on.

It is not necessary to enter Project settings in

order to change the project. This can be done

from the DVD menu.

write more than two hours of video material to

the DVD. Of course, this results in somewhat

lesser image quality. The program will warn you

of this with an appropriate message.

Normal quality corresponds to the quality

usually to be found on commercial DVDs.

High image quality corresponds to the demands

made by the DVD standard on playback devices.

This video should be able to be played back just

as normal quality is.

The Maximum quality level makes full use of

the DVD standard. Not all DVD players support

this quality level. This may be the reason if your

video should icker or cause error messages.

Clicking on Ok displays an appropriate warning

message.

• The button Audio mode is used to specify the

audio quality: uncompressed or compressed.

Compressed audio requires only a fraction of

the capacity, but at the cost of slightly reduced

quality. When creating a music video, it is

recommended that you use uncompressed

audio.

Note: Only those projects marked with a white

point contain video material.

• You also see the information Project length,

which indicates the length of the inserted

project.

• You can specify the Image quality of the project

after conversion to the DVD standard by clicking

on the selection control.

There are Four levels available:

Reduced, Normal, High and Maximum.

The image quality is determined by the data

rate (level of compression)- the better the image

quality, the more memory is needed.

High or maximum quality will ll up the DVD

more quickly then normal or low quality.

Reduced image quality guarantees that you can

Note for the technically interested:

Uncompressed audio uses PCM audio with 16

bits and 48 kHz. Compressed audio uses MPEG

audio.

• You are also shown the Size approximation for

this project. The calculation takes account of the

quality level (discussed above) and the duration

of the project. The value displayed is only an

approximation; the actual amount of required

memory, once created, may be slightly more or

less than this amount.

If not enough memory is present, then you must

either reduce image/audio quality or remove

other projects.

A message appears before a lm is added if this

would cause the project to become too large to

t on the DVD. In some cases the project could

still t on the DVD, because the calculated value

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9

is only an approximation.

• The displayed free capacity indicates how

much space is still free on the DVD.

• You can divide your project into chapters by

clicking on the button Edit Chapter Menu. These

chapters can be individually selected later when

playing the DVD. This is a signicant help,

especially with large projects.

Selecting the function Edit Chapter Menu opens

a window in which the individual storyboard

scenes are displayed. The scenes are displayed,

for example, as follows:

Chapter 1 000.05:00 S1

course, this function is useful only if your scenes

correspond to the desired chapters.

Afterward, click on the neighboring button Edit

Chapter Menu (see below) and you will see that

the number of chapters now corresponds to the

number of scenes.

The icons are shown with the rst image of the

video scene, but can be replaced with images

from the scene bin of any desired project

(function Select Scene in the Stamps submenu).

All chapters display at rst the scene names, but

of course these names can be changed.

A chapter must always begin at the start of a

scene, so scroll through the scenes displayed in

this window and decide where you would like to

set the beginning of a chapter. Select the line of

the desired scene and click on the corresponding

button Start Chapter.

The subsequent Chapters are numbered

automatically by the system to reect your set

chapters. (Clicking on the button Undo Chapter

removes the chapter point.)

With DVD-Arabesk you can create up to 99

chapters. Six chapter icons can be shown per

page, so that there can be up to 17 pages.

Clicking on the function Chapter --> Scenes

causes a chapter to be automatically created

for each scene in the storyboard. An hour-

glass is displayed while this is happening. Of

If too many chapters were created, then you

can remove the superuous ones by selecting

the name of the chapter to remove in the Edit

Chapter Menu window and then clicking on

the Undo Chapter button. You will see that it is

assigned to the chapter displayed above it.

Note: Please note that chapter menus can only

be created before the lm is inserted. Editing

of chapter menus is not possible after lm

insertion.

Clicking on Edit Chapter Menu brings you to

a new menu that is similar to the layout of the

DVD menu.

For general handling of chapter menu layout

please read section 3.1, item (2) Edit Menu,

because operation and functionality of the

menus is analogous to the layout of the DVD

menu.

The new buttons or functions not explained

there are described in the following.

9

- Context: In the context menu you use the slider

active Page to specify which of the existing

chapter pages you wish to display and edit.

If you haven’t set any further chapter beginning,

then you see only one chapter icon in the menu

and no further page can be displayed. But if you

have set more than 6 chapter beginnings, either

manually or automatically (see function Scenes

--> Chapters), then several pages can then be

selected.

- Background: In contrast with forming the

DVD background, in forming the chapter menu

background it is not possible to select animated

scenes. If you decide on the selection Scene,

then this is represented only with the rst

image. Audio selection is also not possible.

- Stamps: Please note that only one image

per chapter can be selected, i.e., you can set a

maximum of 6 chapter images on one page. (If

you want to insert more images, then additional

pages are inserted automatically. A maximum of

99 chapters can be created.)

Please note when selecting the position that

navigation arrows are centered at the left and

right screen edge, so that icons should not be

put there.

- Chapter-text attributes: Here you can globally

change the chapter titling (e.g. changes apply to

all chapters on all pages).

All pages for chapter menus have the same

layout, e.g. you cannot make all settings

individually for the menu pages. For example, if

you change the position of the rst chapter icon

on the rst page, then the position of the rst

icon is changed correspondingly on all further

pages. Of course, the text for each chapter icon

can be specied individually.

You can navigate freely in your new chapter

menus. This means that you can specify the

direction with all four navigation keys. For

example, pressing the arrow-down key activates

a chapter in the lower row.

DVD-Arabesk 3 allows you to navigate freely in

the DVD main menu.

If you have more than one chapter page (you

have created more than 6 chapters), then you

can use the arrows to move through the pages

during playback. To change pages, select the left

or right arrow and conrm the selection either

with the Ok key or with the Enter key on your

remote control.

These arrows, centered at the right and left

screen edge, are created by DVD-Arabesk 3

automatically. They are not visible during

chapter creation, nor can their layout be

modied. During chapter creation you access

the desired page by using the control active

page in the Context menu.

Note: If you don‘t use the chapter editing

function, then chapters are automatically created

in ve-minute intervals. In this case no chapter

menu is generated, but you can still move

through the chapters using the remote control of

your player.

After having set and edited the chapters,

leave the menu Edit Chapter Menu by clicking

on Ok so that you are again in the Add Film

window. Click on Ok, so that your settings are

automatically calculated and the lms are added

to the DVD-Arabesk 3 program. This can take

some time, depending on the size of the project

Note: For very detailed video material the lm

might not t on the DVD, even though the

approximation seemed to predict enough space.

If this should happen, it will be at the end of the

calculation. In this case try again with a lower

quality level or with compressed audio.

After the project has been inserted, you can call

up the Add Film window again in order to select

another project, which is then also automatically

added. Please note that only a maximum of six

lms can be added to one DVD.

Note: You can of course remove an already

added lm if you wish. You can also change the

lm sequence. For more on this, please read 3.2

Information / Play, item (4).

10

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3.1 Creation: Edit Menu

(2) Click on the Edit Menu button and you will

see the titleCasablanca DVD in the background

(or the title of the previously edited DVD) and

the rst image of each of the added lm projects

with the project name appearing below it.

The foreground displays an operating panel

containing various options for laying out the

DVD menu.

At the upper edge of the panel you will see

the selection button named Menu that lets

you access the nine different settings that are

described below.

The bottom portion of the operating panel

displays the individual options of the current

Menu setting.

• Control: Here you can make the settings that

effect how the nished DVD is played when put

into a DVD player.

menu appears, but you now do not see the rst

lm listed in the DVD menu screen. It is now

not possible to start the rst lm again from the

menu.

Trailer + Menu

This setting plays the rst lm automatically, but

also displays the lm in the DVD menu, where

can now be selected again.

• Background

This function is used to specify the background

of the DVD menu.

1. Film

This function gives you the chance to specify

whether the rst lm projects is automatically

played or simply listed in the menu.

Menu

With this option, the DVD menu appears when

the DVD is inserted into the player, and the rst

lm is not automatically played.

Trailer only

This plays the rst lm automatically when the

DVD is inserted. After the rst lm ends, the

Type

This button provides the choice of a Color,

Pattern or Scene for your DVD menu

background. After this is designated, you can

use the Select control lying below to call up the

color box, the image pool or a specic scene

from any of your projects.

If you decide to use Scene, then you can select

a project of your choice in the Select project

window. The scene bin for the project appears

when you click on Ok. Now you can select the

scene in the same manner you would select a

scen in the main Edit screen: either by clicking

directly on it with the arrow, with the controls to

the right and left that allow you to go directly to

the beginning or the end of the scene bin.

The rst image of the scene is used. If you want

another frame in the scene other than the rst

image, go to the main Edit menu and trim the